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Walker Art Center
1750 Hennepin Ave.
Minneapolis
612-375-7600
Women with Vision 2008: Past/Present
March 2008

Women with Vision 2008, the 15th installment of this film festival that celebrates women directors, filmmakers, and artists. Sheryl Mousley, the Walker’s film/video curator, often finds thematic threads connecting the films she selects. Past years embraced directors confronting consequences of silence, increased surveillance, and global migration. Several of this year's filmmakers tell stories by looking back in time to understand where we stand in this complex, contemporary world. Drawing entries from around the world, the festival also boasts a Minnesota premiere: producer Christine Walker and director Georgina Lightning present Older Than America. Global viewpoints come from Japan’s Naomi Kawase, with her Cannes Film Festival winner The Mourning Forest, and a slate of films from Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Iran, Brazil, and of course, the United States.

Friday, March 7, 7:30 p.m.
Older Than America
Introduced by director Georgina Lightning, producer Christine Walker, and special guest actress Tantoo Cardinal. A woman’s haunting visions reveal a Catholic priest’s sinister plot to silence her mother from speaking the truth about the atrocities that took place at her Native American boarding school. A contemporary drama of suspense, Older Than America (filmed on location in Cloquet, Minnesota) delves into the lasting impact of the cultural genocide and loss of identity that occurred at these institutions across the United States and Canada. 2008, U.S., 35mm, 102 minutes.

March 8, 2 p.m.
Short Films, Program One
5 Cents a Peek, Directed by Vanessa Woods, 2007, U.S., video, 7 minutes.

Labyrinth, Introduced by director Jila Nikpay, 2007, U.S., video, 4 minutes.

Catalogue of Birds: Book 3, Directed by Jayne Parker, 2006, U.K., video, 16 minutes.

Drum Room, Directed by Miranda Pennell, 2007, U.K., video, 15 minutes.

Mirroring Cure, Directed by Charlotte Ginsborg, 2007, U.K., video, 28 minutes.

Saturday, March 8, 7:30
Madonnas (Madonnen), Directed by Maria Speth. "Everybody seems to know what a good mother should and shouldn’t do. And if she fails, massive moral sanctions are the consequence, unlike fathers in the same positions," says filmmaker Maria Speth. "But social reality is full of mothers who fail to fulfill their role the way society expects them to." Using this idea as a starting point, Speth tells the story of Rita, a single mother of five, struggling to create the family she never had herself. 2007, Germany / Belgium / Switzerland, 35mm, in German and French with English subtitles, 125 minutes.

Sunday, March 9, 7 p.m.
Making Trouble, Directed by Rachel Talbot, Introduced by Jewish Women’s Archive Chair Barbara Berman Dobkin; Tickets: $8 Walker members (612.375.7600); nonmembers (952.381.3499); General admission tickets: 952.381.3499; Joan Rivers, Gilda Radner, and Wendy Wasserstein. Their comedy defied cultural expectations and changed the rules. This documentary spans more than a century of theater, film, and television from vaudeville and the Yiddish theater and Broadway to the Ziegfeld Follies and Saturday Night Live. Mixing archival footage with original interviews, the film provides insight into what it means to be Jewish, female, and funny. 2007, U.S., video, 85 minutes.

This film was produced by the Jewish Women’s Archive. Copresented with the Sabes Foundation Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival.

Friday, March 14, 7:30 p.m.
Parting Shot (Pas Douce), Directed by Jeanne Waltz. A troubled young nurse (Isild Le Besco) working in a mountain town on the Franco-Swiss border and depressed by her love life, her relationship with her estranged father, and her boring small-town existence, commits an impulsive act of violence and then is assigned to care for the teenage boy she has shot. The French title of this tale of anger, guilt, and redemption translates literally as not gentle. Le Besco made her directorial debut with Half-Price at the 2006 Women with Vision festival. 2006, France/ Switzerland, 35mm, in French with English subtitles, 81 minutes.

Saturday, March 15, 7:30
Faces of a Fig Tree (Ichijiku no kao), Directed by Kaori Momoi. Inspired by the serialized novel Ichijiku no kao, actress Kaori Momoi developed an innovative screenplay for her first film. The narrative centers on the Kadowaki family, whose members lead normal lives until confronted by dramatic circumstances. Momoi presents her mysterious story with vibrant colors, crazy camera angles, and quirky characters that burst off the screen. 2006, Japan, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles, 94 minutes.

Sunday, March 16, 2 p.m.
It Happened Just Before (Kurz davor ist es passiert), Directed by Anja Salomonowitz. Utilizing an unusual documentary approach, this film examines the real stories of women victimized by human trafficking. These first-person narratives are read by a customs officer, a neighbor, a bartender in a brothel, a diplomat, and a taxi driver — people who weren’t directly involved in the women’s tragic destinies but, as the film suggests, may have played roles in them. Here, ordinary days at a border crossing, in a peaceful neighborhood, and at the workplace serve as backdrops for what can be considered modern slavery. 2006, Austria, 35mm, in German with English subtitles, 72 minutes.

Thursday, March 20, 7 p.m.
Operation Filmmaker, Directed by Nina Davenport. In the wake of Operation Iraqi Freedom, American actor Liev Schreiber had an idealistic thought: rescue an Iraqi film student from the rubble of his country and bring him to Prague to work as an intern on a Hollywood movie he is directing (Everything Is Illuminated). What promises to be a heartwarming tale quickly becomes a mirror of the complex intercultural realities that have plagued the United States’ war in Iraq. Director Nina Davenport sets out to document Schreiber’s charitable effort, but soon finds herself embroiled in an escalating power struggle between herself as filmmaker and her young Iraqi subject. 2007, U.S., video, 92 minutes.

Wednesday, March 26, 7:30
Shara (Sharasojyu), Directed by Naomi Kawase. From the old town of Nara, the capital of Japan during the eighth and ninth centuries, the Aso family sets out for the Jizo Festival in the dizzying heat of midsummer. When Kei, one of the Asos' twin boys, suddenly disappears as if he’d been spirited away, time stops for the family until years later, when the remaining twin returns to the Jizo festival. Working cleverly with gaps in the narrative, Kawase evokes her characters' feelings through stunning and resounding images. 2003, Japan, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles, 100 minutes.

Naomi Kawase was only 27 when she won the Camera d'Or at Cannes for her independently produced debut Suzaku in 1997. Reaffirming her reputation with Shara in 2003, she is now recognized as one of Japan’s leading directors. This reputation was solidly confirmed on the international stage when she won the Grand Jury prize in Cannes 2007 for The Mourning Forest.

This program is copresented with the Institute for Advanced Study Film Collaborative and the Consortium for the Study of the Asias, University of Minnesota.

Thursday, March 27, 7 p.m.
The Mourning Forest (Mogari No Mori). Introduced by director Naomi Kawase. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes 2007, this film pairs an elderly man whose dementia confines him to a nursing home and the young nurse who befriends him. On this unexpected journey of discovery, an eloquent story unfolds against the lush and tranquil setting of western Japan, where Kawase's natural touch as a filmmaker creates an inner geography of emotion. 2007, Japan/France, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles, 97 minutes.

Preceded by a free screening of Birth/Mother (Tarachime) at 5:30 pm. A documentary by the filmmaker on the birth of her son in the traditional Japanese way, and her relationship with her 90-year-old great aunt. 2006, in Japanese with English subtitles, 43 minutes.

Kawase's documentary Sky, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth (Kya Ka Ra Ba A) will be screened at the University of Minnesota on Friday, March 28, at 3:30 pm. Free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://fc.umn.edu.

Friday, March 28, 7:30 p.m.
Mutum, Directed by Sandra Kogut. Based on the popular novel Campo Geral by João Guimarães Rosa, Sandra Kogut's debut film won the Première Award (Best Film) at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival. An isolated farm in the arid backlands of Brazil provides the backdrop for 10-year-old Thiago to invent stories that help him understand the intricacies of grownups. This film is part of the Walker’s ongoing series Cinemateca: New Film from Latin America. 2007, Brazil, 35mm, in Portuguese with English subtitles, 95 minutes.

Saturday, March 29, 2 p.m.
Short Films, Program Two
Auditions for a Revolution, Directed by Irina Botea, 2007, U.S., video, 22 minutes.

Curtea de Arges, Directed by Ulrike Ostermann, 2007, Austria, video, 6 minutes.

Sakura, Directed by Esther Harris, 2007, U.S./Japan, video, 7 minutes.

Ver Llover, Directed by Elisa Miller, 2006, Mexico, 35mm, in Spanish with English subtitles, 14 minutes.

Betty + Johnny, Directed by Ellen Lake, 2006, U.S., 16mm, 4 minutes.

Everyone I Have Ever Known, Directed by Salise Hughes, 2006, U.S., video, 4 minutes.

Orange Glasses, Introduced by director Lu Lippold, 2008, U.S., video, 11 minutes.

Jeff Moves, Directed by Madeleine Schwartzman, 2007, U.S., video, 9 minutes.

Closing Night
Saturday, March 29, 7:30
Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (Buda as sharm foru rikht), Directed by Hana Makhmalbaf. Hana Makhmalbaf's directorial debut, which centers on a six-year-old girl’s efforts to learn to read, is the winner of the Special Jury Prize at San Sabastián Film Festival, where it was noted that this first feature by a young director impressed the jury with its exquisite cinematography and the remarkable performance by the child actress Nikbakht Noruz. Set in the Afghani province of Bamian where, in 2001, the Taliban destroyed a pair of massive fifth-century Buddha carvings, this story shows the of children who live near the remains of the destroyed Buddha. Hana's sister, Samira, premiered her first film, The Apple, at the 1999 Women with Vision Festival. 2007, Iran/France, video, in Farsi with English subtitles, 81 minutes.